Bowl loss still irks Spurrier
Steve Spurrier still isn’t over the Papajohns.com Bowl.
If you thought six months would be sufficient for Spurrier to get over his team’s lackluster 20-7 loss to UConn in Birmingham, think again.
“Sometimes I’m asked, ticket sales are not quite where we hoped they would be. Well, I say, ‘Our fans remember the UConn game. And I remember the UConn game. And we weren’t very good,’” Spurrier said Wednesday after his annual media golf outing.
“And don’t tell us to forget it because we’re not going to forget it. We’re going to try our best to never ever have a performance like that again.”
Spurrier isn’t echoing any of the preseason talk about South Carolina being factors in the East this year. He wants the Gamecocks to prove they can contend before he starts crowing about them.
“We’re a different team. We have different leaders, different players. It’s going to be a new team,” he said. “We think our guys will really compete. But until we do it, we’re all just in the process of trying to earn respect – not only of our fans, but fans all over the country. We need to go out and earn it.”
A couple of news items:
–Assistant head coach for defense Ellis Johnson said an NCAA official was on campus several months ago to interview sophomore defensive backs Stephon Gilmore and DeVonte Holloman about their recruitment by USC.
Johnson said the interviews were unrelated to the NCAA’s ongoing probe of agent activity that involves Gamecocks tight end Weslye Saunders.
Johnson recruited Gilmore and Holloman, who were teammates at South Pointe High in Rock Hill. Johnson said the players and their families told him there was nothing in their recruitment that would be of concern.
Johnson said he thought another USC player might have been interviewed, as well.
“It sounded to me like they were quizzed about all their recruiting process, and some different things that went on,” Johnson said. “It happens quite frequently.”
–Backup quarterback Zac Brindise has been granted his scholarship release and is expected to transfer to Western Carolina. Brindise visited the Football Championship Subdivision school in Cullowhee, N.C., on Wednesday, according to his brother, Noah Brindise.
Brindise, who had been passed by freshman Connor Shaw as the backup to starter Stephen Garcia, would join Reid McCollum and Aramis Hillary as the third quarterback to leave the program this offseason.
–Reserve defensive tackle Ronald Byrd also could be on his way out.
“He’s not doing everything he’s supposed to do,” defensive line coach Brad Lawing said of Byrd, a redshirt freshman from LaGrange, Ga., who has yet to take a snap at USC.
–Spurrier had no update on Saunders’ situation; tight ends coach Jeep Hunter said the staff was waiting to hear from the school’s compliance office as to whether Saunders will be able to practice when preseason drills start next week.
15 Comments to “Bowl loss still irks Spurrier”
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USC football beat writer Joe Person has covered the Gamecocks since the start of the 2002 season. He's been on the college football beat since 1993. 
Other teams go to bowl games and they practice and work hard to win those games – the Gamecocks go to bowl games to have fun; NO hard work or practice; NO emphasis on playing to win – it starts at the top with Spurrier!
New year,,New season,,,,,,,0 n 0,,like everyone else is…….
Let’s be positive!
The UCONN game was disgraceful and not acceptable. South Carolina is not in position to take ANY TEAM lightly! After beating Clemson, they go on “vacation” to Birmingham and lose to UCONN! UCONN dammit!! Still here McClendon,,,,and on Forums too! Read it and weep!
Our last bowl game was indeed an Unmitigated DISASTER! We don’t deserve much respect after that sad performance. The one previous to that was also embarrassing! Instead of watching film the night before that bowl game in Tampa, Garcia was playing on an XBox! But, he was still a Freshman back then.
Now that he’s an UpperClassman, Garcia MUST Step Up!
GO COCKS!
Glad to hear Spurrier is still irked about it because I know every Gamecock fan is too. Looking forward to getting that lousy game out of our system!
It is not only the UCONN game that was a disgrace and a loss – it was also the Iowa game that was another disgrace and a loss.
Weren’t the announcers even criticizing the Gamecocks for being out parting while the Iowa players were practicing hard for the bowl game?
Would Nick Saban allow his players to quit like our Gamecock players have quit in bowl games?
One must wonder – would the Gamecocks win more games with Nick Saban as coach? Would Alabama lose more games with Steve Spurrier as coach?
I do NOT know – just a question.
Give it a break VET!
We all could play the “what if game”
The past is the past…can’t go back now!
This is South Carolina football! Just accept it and move on. The 2011 recruiting class is a dynamic example of Spurriers playing too much golf. This class is ranked the 10th best in the SEC (#52 in Division 1 Football). Winning bowl games starts with recruiting. It appears that there will not be any bowl game victories in the next few years!
The weather definitely had a hand in that game. You get a little stiff when you’re not used to playing in 20 degree weather, whereas UCONN lives in that stuff.
What? No comments about the NCAA investigation of Gilmore and Holloman? That could be devastating to lose those two young men, but even more so to lose the Rock Hill pipeline. I guess it is probably best to keep yourheads in the sand.
Hey Bubba!
You idiot recruiting rankings aren’t finalized until the kid signs on the dotted line!
Last time I checked that date is Feb. 2011 and today is what?
Then again at Clemtech it might be 2012!
Listened to the SOS news conference after the golf outing. He did a good job of not taking the bait from any of the reporters who tried to get him to say USC would compete for the division title. As for the bowl – that was as cold and miserable as I have been at any sporting event in my 44 years on this earth. The best way to forget it is with W’s.
When you play “not to lose” then you are going to lose. Play “to win” and you win. The Gamecocks have too aften played “not to lose” and we all know the results; IOWA, UCONN, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, LSU….. They can be a respectable team when they try. But to be a GREAT team takes more than trying, it takes doing.
It’s 2010 and 0-0. Good luck, play to win.
Go Cocks!
Boy, taters sure are nervous about what is being built at Carolina. Just look at the comments from the orange upstate idjits in this thread for proof.